KR Castlemaine's shutdown disappoints Beattie

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says he is disappointed with KR Castlemaine's decision to shut down its processing plant on the Darling Downs.

About 350 jobs will go when the Toowoomba small goods factory closes early next year.

Its employees have been offered work in the Victorian facility and a resettlement package but their union says not many are expected to take the offer.

Mr Beattie says the State Government gave the company almost $2 million in 1999 on the proviso it would stay in Queensland for five years.

But he says that time has now lapsed.

"This is a real kick in the guts for this community who've supported them," he said.

"We've given them significant funding to get them to stay here, admittedly for five years and admittedly that's expired, but frankly I would hope we can work with the Commonwealth to change this decision."

KR Castlemaine president Mike Adams says the company will continue to slaughter up to 8,000 pigs from Queensland producers and transport them to Victoria for processing.

"We were faced with the decision of having one modern factory in Castlemaine and one very old factory in Toowoomba and it just did not make economic sense to try and run two plants," he said.

"We'll continue purchasing pigs in Queensland now and into the future.

"What we don't think we need to do is own the abattoir, so we're going to put the abattoir up for sale as a going concern."